monophyletic
|mon-o-phy-let-ic|
🇺🇸
/ˌmɑnəfaɪˈlɛtɪk/
🇬🇧
/ˌmɒnəfaɪˈlɛtɪk/
single-origin group
Etymology
'monophyletic' originates from New Latin/modern scientific coinage, built from Greek 'monos' meaning 'single' and Greek 'phylē' meaning 'tribe' or 'race'.
'monophyletic' was formed in modern biological terminology (via New Latin/Neo-Greek formation, 19th–20th century) from Greek elements 'monos' + 'phylē' and the adjectival suffix, becoming the established term in English scientific usage.
Initially coined to describe groups sharing a single ancestral lineage, its core meaning has remained stable and still denotes a group descended from a single common ancestor (a clade).
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
relating to or denoting a group of organisms that consists of all the descendants of a common ancestor (a single evolutionary origin); forming a clade.
The researchers concluded that the genus was monophyletic based on molecular phylogenetic analyses.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/12/21 05:56